Hanoi summit: Trump praises Kim Jong Un, hails him as ‘great leader’

Hanoi, Feb 27: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un as a 'great leader' after the duo met in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi for their second summit to discuss concrete ways for peace on and denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

The two leaders shook hands and smiled in their first encounter, next to national flags of the two countries. A banner hanging above the flags read "Hanoi Summit" both in English and Korean. After exchanging greetings, they proceeded to their tete-a-tete meeting, according to the Guardian.

Trump said, "I think it’ll lead to a wonderful, really a wonderful situation long term," as he sat beside Kim at the dinner table.

Asked earlier, if the summit would yield a political declaration to end the Korean War, Trump said, “We’ll see.”

Kim said at a meeting that he hoped the summit's result would suit all sides.

"I hope that we can achieve a result that everyone will welcome. I’m convinced that we can do it," he said.

"Here we are today sitting next to each other, and that gives us hope that the meeting will be successful this time, and I will do my best to make that happen," Kim said.

The summit came about eight months after the first Kim-Trump meeting in Singapore in June last year. (UNI)